Series Introduction

Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum

Armenian is the state language of just what in present memory was the republic that is smallest associated with previous Soviet Union, now the southernmost republic of this Commonwealth of Independent States. The language is talked by around four million individuals nevertheless residing inside the edges of this republic. a tiny number of speakers are now living in north-western Iran, plus some communities dot the countryside of eastern Turkey. Many emigrees have actually spread the language to all or any corners regarding the globe. The initial documentary evidence of this Armenians is really a century that is sixth inscription in Behistun because of the Persian master Darius we. It ended up being almost one thousand years, nonetheless, prior to the Armenians by themselves started initially to put their language to composing, when in 406 or 407 A.D. a priest MaЕЎtКїocКї (also referred to as Mesrop) developed an alphabet that is armenian. One additionally discovers mention of the an alphabet that is prior because of the Syriac bishop Daniel, purportedly abandoned since it had been ill-suited to the audio system associated with language. The language whose documents date back again to this era is termed traditional Armenian. Much later on, into the twelfth to centuries that are seventeenth one discovers the legacy of Middle Armenian, whose writers attemptedto emulate the design of the Golden Age of Classical Armenian. Between those two cycles one further distinguishes two phases associated with the language that is armenian post-Classical, spanning the sixth and seventh hundreds of years, and Pre-Middle Armenian, through the eighth to twelfth centuries. Following the seventeenth century, Armenian progressed into a contemporary type which includes divided into two varieties: West Armenian and East Armenian.

Note: this set of classes is actually for systems/browsers with Unicode В® support, but fonts lacking characters that are armenian. Classes rendered in alternative character sets can be obtained via links (Romanized and Unicode 3) when you look at the margin that is upper-left as well as the base of this page.

Note: this group of classes in Armenian uses Romanized letters rather than the old-fashioned alphabet that is armenian. Classes rendered into the conventional alphabet may be accessed through the menu item that is armenian.

Origin and Geographical Location

According to Greek tradition that is mythic Armenia had been called after Armenus, certainly one of Jason’s Argonauts. Herodotus, composing when you look at the fifth century B.C., states that the Armenians lived in Thrace after which relocated into Phrygia, from where they crossed into the subsequent Armenian territory. Strabo, composing when you look at the century that is first, states that the Armenians joined the territory from two instructions, hookupdate.net/nl/blendr-recenzja/ one team originating from Phrygia within the western, one other originating from Mesopotamia within the southeast. Although by neither account had been they the first inhabitants associated with area, Xenophon documents in 400 B.C. which they appear to have absorbed all the dwellers that are local.

Armenian tradition, recorded between your 5th and eighth centuries A.D., relates the Armenian individuals the descendants of Noah. Following the Flood, Noah’s household settled in Armenia before going south to Babylon in successive generations. Certainly one of Noah’s descendants, Haik, revolted and returned to Armenia, pursued by the Babylonian Bel. Haik killed Bel and became ruler of this Armenian land, and the descendants of Haik later defended Armenia from the forces of Assyria.

Contemporary scholarly views are simply as wide-ranging. a common view is that the Armenians were of Indo-European stock and joined the region either along because of the Phrygians from the Balkan area or because of the Mitanni through the section of the Aral Sea. They encountered the culture that is urartuan an amount of decrease and finally arrived to rule over them as well as other Caucasian teams in your community. Another concept attracts on linguistic similarities between your Armenian language and the Caucasian languages of this area to state that the Armenians had initially been by by themselves a Caucasian tribe which adopted an Indo-European tongue, and this Caucasian substrate is in charge of the fact Armenian is pretty genetically separated among the list of Indo-European languages. Still another concept is the fact that Armenians would be the many inactive people in the first speakers of Proto-Indo-European; that the Indo-European languages originated from the region that is transcaucasian nevertheless the Armenians, whom decided to go with not to ever migrate from the area, had been marginalized during durations of Hittite and Urartuan dominance. Suffice it to state, the origin that is true of Armenian individuals will remain shrouded in obscurity for a while in the future.

The land that actuallyrmenian is a plateau situated approximately 5000 foot above ocean degree and hemmed in by mountainous areas. It lies roughly southeast of the Ebony Sea and southwest regarding the Caspian Sea. The ancient Armenian homeland was somewhat more expansive as compared to modern Armenian Republic, also including a lot of eastern Turkey, the northeastern part of Iran, and areas of Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Kur River separates the highland region from lowlands which sweep to the Caspian Sea in the northeast. The border that is northern proceeded by the Pontus mountain range, which stretches west through the supply of the Kur and shields Armenia through the Ebony water. The Taurus and Zagros hill ranges produce a boundary that is natural over the entire southern expanse and cutting Armenia off from Mesopotamia. The Armenian plateau it self is split by a number of smaller hill ranges that furnish the sources for many unnavigable streams. The section that is northermost of Euphrates would be to form the boundary between Greater and Lesser Armenia when you look at the subsequent imperial battles.